Stay Strong
by The Light Of A Shadow
Summary: Ash, Brock and Dawn are in Johto now but things don't start of well . . .   Lame Summary - I know  .
1. Chapter 1

My First story! I'm not sure when the next update will be but PLEASE REVIEW!

**I don't own Pokemon **

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She was getting impatient now. Any second her name will be called. Just a distance away she could hear the cheers of the excited audience and the confident voice of the presenter. Looking down she saw her loyal Pokémon, Piplup, look up at her, anxiously.

"Come now, Piplup, into your pokeball. It'll be our turn very soon." she said to the little penguin Pokémon which shot in to the ball in a beam of red, bright light.

"...and now without further ado, let me present to you our next contestant all the way from Twinleaf Town: Dawn!" Mary said in to her mike signalling for the curtains to part, revealing a smiling Dawn.

She hurried out onto the brightly lit stage and tossed her pokeball into the air coupled with her stage cry, "Spot light!"

Piplup burst into the air joyfully and landed on both feet, beaming up at the clapping crowd.

"Now, use Bubble Beam!" ordered the coordinator.

The small Pokémon produced bundles of crystal clear bubbles that reflected rays of the golden sunshine. The effect was blinding. Each bubble burst in the end, dazzling the audience and pleasing the judges.

"Now peck these!" Dawn said tossing numerous colourful discs into the air. Piplup's miniature beak glowed striking silver and grew a few inches. Then with quick speed and agility it jumped into the air and pecked each disk causing them to break open and shower confetti over the stage. Dawn could hear the roar of the crowds approval over Mary's commenting which lifted her spirits causing her to smile even more widely.

"She's doing great! Look at that and Piplup's couldn't have performed better!" yelled Ash over to Brock who was cheering along with the crowd.

"I know! She's amazing up on stage." he replied back over the noise.

Within in minutes they had stopped and bowed gracefully.

"Now I'll hand it over to our judges. Let's see what they have to say about that."

"I enjoyed every bit of it. Not a dull moment!."'said the first judge with an encouraging smile.

'Also, very remarkable!' was the usual comment of the second judge.

"The strong bond between both trainer and Pokémon was plainly visible and both of you had fun performing, undoubtedly." Nurse Joy finished off.

"Well, those are some great comments for Dawn. She must be very glad and now it's time for the next ..."

Dawn walked backstage to be greeted by her old friend and rival, Kenny.

"Nice work . . . Dee Dee." grinned the young coordinator.

"DON'T CAL ME DEE DEE!"

He just laughed and walked while saying to her,

"At least you're improving!"

_Urgh! He's such a - _

"Hey Dawn!" she looked over at the entrance to see who had disturbed her thoughts only to find the her two best friends beaming at her, Ash and Brock.

"So? What'd you think?" she asked knowing what the answer was going to be.

"You were great! Everyone loved you!" Ash began with Brock standing by his shoulder nodding at everything being said.

Moments later Mary's voice echoed in the room causing all coordinators to stop chattering and look up at the screen.

"We know have the results of the first round!" and she gestured towards the huge screen.

One by one cards containing each coordinators face showed up on the screen. Kenny's card came up and still no Dawn.

_Where's mine? _She thought getting scared. There was only 2 left to be revealed. Eyes tightly shut she waited . . .

"And those are our lucky coordinators who have got through to the next round!"

Daring to open her eyes she looked up to find herself not on there along with the others successful.

Knowing that the gazes of her friends and pókemon were on her she tried to hide her tears that were slowly swelling up in her blue eyes.

"Well, at least Kenny thinks I'm improving!" she said laughing slightly, "That's good new, right?"

The unbelieving looks her friends told her at once that they didn't buy this act.

"Pip . . ." said the little penguin.

"I think I'm gonna go change. Meet you all back here later!" she said and ran off with out another word.

She wasn't going to let them see her cry again, not again. She had to be strong.

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Please please review! What did you thing? Like it? Hate it? Any words of advice?

Thanks for reading it though and sorry for any mistakes you may have found ^-^;


	2. Chapter 2

Here's my second chapter. I'm really not sure how I've done on this one. I've got tons of homework coming in so I thought I'd finish this and get it done and over with. There will be some mistakes and sorry if I took long finishing it. Thanks so much to mysticpurple6 for being my very first reviewer! It meant so much, really!

Have fun reading and I've got a bit of a confession to make at the end n

**I don't own Pokemon **

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Dawn ran down the endless corridors, tears streaking past her shoulders whilst people, young and old alike, frequently glanced at her noticing her stumbles and staggers however she kept on running, never stopping.

_Why am I such a loser? Will I always be a failure to my Pokemon? How much longer will I keep letting my Pokemon down? _She thought to herself as more tears rushed down her cheeks, _I don't care anymore, I will be better. I have to improve . . . for them . . ._

Sharply turned a corner she hit her head against something hard causing her to fall back on to the dull grey floor. For a moment she lay there wanting to just disappear and imagine she wasn't even there but knowing she couldn't hide reality she sat up, too weak to get up on her legs, rubbing her wounded head she came face to face with the cryptic features of _him._

"Watch where you're going ... troublesome." the emotionless voice said to her shocked face.

_What's he doing here?_

Meanwhile, back in the Contest Hall Ash looked over to Brock, eyes full with questions he knew Brock would be able to answer.

"Do you -" Ash started off before Brock cut in.

"Don't worry Ash, Dawn's not a child, she'll feel better soon but first we should give her time. When she's ready to confront us then we'll go, nothing'll happen if we pester her, she might just want to be alone so this might actually be good for her."

Ash gaped at the smart response from his old friend. A reply like this wasn't expected from him though Ash had to admit, Brock spoke the truth.

"I guess you're right … "

"I know I am," he smirked just as a pretty coordinator walked by, "Oh my!" he said suddenly wasting no time in joyfully prancing after the girl deeply infatuated by her. Surprised by this action Ash stood at staring at Brock again.

"I guess he'll never change." muttered Ash to his faithful Pikachu as they followed Brock trying their best to get him away from his innocent victim.

Back in the corridor Dawn, still on the floor, was facing up at the harsh face of Ash's rival, Paul.

"Are you just going to stare at me or get up?" he said looking down at her.

"It'd be nice to have some help!" she retorted trying not to sound scared.

Giving her a weird look he quickly grabbed her by the arm and stood her on her feet. Dawn shook for a moment, swaying on the spot at the sudden change from being on the floor to standing up. She was still feeling weak and was surprised at the amount of strength Paul had. Her arm, which he grabbed, lay loosely on her side starting to ache.

"Great! Now my arms hurting too." she murmured to herself.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." then changing her mind think he should know the trurth she added, "You didn't have to hold that hard." rubbing her shoulders looking on the floor, recollecting memories of what just happened in the contest. The failure was haunting her …

"Are you going to move now?" she heard Paul's voice echoing seeming to come from a huge distance away but gradually bringing her back to the present with a bang.

"Oh right …" she said to herself, barely audible.

Noticing her sudden silence a flicker of emotion flashed on his face for a second though quickly replaced by his usual sour expression.

"Are you ok?" he asked with a hint of worry in his voice though his face remained usual.

Dawn looked up, shocked and what her ears just took in. _Was Paul worried? _He couldn't be. Why would someone like him care for her? She was the friend of his rival afterall. Paul, realising what he had just said resulting in the odd that expression Dawn was giving him, knew that it was time to leave. He hastily marched past her without saying another word. Dawn watched him as he left, wearing bewildered face.

_First he's a real harsh guy with no care for others and then he's … worried?_

Brock sat, still rubbing his behind due to Croagunk's recent poison jab.

"You know Ash, me and that girl were really connecting back there. If Croagunk hadn't showed up ..." he glanced down at the Pokeball as if expecting for his Pókemon to come out again and attack him.

"Don't kid yourself Brock. She was practically running away from you!" laughed Ash at his friends dejected face.

Glancing up at the pokecenter's clock huge clocke Ash's laughter slowly quietened. It'd been two hours since Dawn ran off …

_Where is she? _He thought to himself. _If she's not here in five minutes then I'm –_

"Hi guys!," Dawn cheery voice could be heard just behind him. He turned around to face her, "Sorry I was late, I took longer than I was meant to but you just have seen my hair!" she said laughing lightly trying to hide some sadness that stuck on to her like a tattoo.

"Are you ready to leave? It's going to be some time before we reach the next town." Ash asked.

"Yup, I'm all set!" she gave one of her bright smiles and started making her way towards the exit, "Common guys!"

Brock and Ash exchanged looks while Dawn wasn't looking. She weren't fooling them but they knew they had to play along. Anything to keep her happy and her mood bright. Running after her they all leaped out, the bright sun's rays greeting them.

"Let's keep moving!" Brock said leading the other two in to the emerald forests.

Dawn looked around. The weather was so beautiful it seemed to laugh and at her misery and bad luck. No matter how the weather was on the outside, for her it was still raining heavily inside with persisting droplets of failure flooding her insides, slowly starting to leak out through her. No. She couldn't let this happen. She shut her eyes tightly trying to block out the worldly sounds for a moment. Ash looked over at his friend with concern filled eyes.

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Paul's in the story too! Anyways, the confession was ... I really have no idea where I'm going with this story. I'm making it up as I go along and who knows how many chapters there might be! If anyone wants to chip in or give any advice feel free - I could use it XD I bet you can tell from the way I go on that I don't know what I'm doing =.=;

Other than that___** please review!**_ I need lot's of them to know what you think of my stories. No point writing more if you all don't like them so please review! Thanks for reading!


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